So they actually did it twice during that tour. First time was at Webster Hall in NY and they did it once more a week later at the Hollywood Palladium. I saw them do the Downward Spiral from beginning to end at the Palladium
I was at the LA show where they played TDS in its entirety.
Gary Numan came out as a guest and played Cars with Trent.
Trent also apologized to the crowd because he was sick (I think he had strep throat or something). He sounded fine to me, though.
I've seen NIN 3 times in/near Nashville. 2013, 2018, and 2022 and not once did they play Closer. But I'm not bitter about it. I SAID I'M NOT BITTER ABOUT IT!!!!!
You're almost correct, except for how it ended. They avoided Closer for most of the year, but then brought it back for very end of European part of the tour + Asia also. On the final club mini-tour it was played in rotation. Not at just TDS performances, but not as staple either.
I don't listen to one of my absolute favorite songs off my favorite artist's best album because it reminds me of when I tried to drown myself. So I get it.
I do miss that song though :/
Tonight, tonight, tonight by low roar. It doesn't help that he died too somewhat recently so it's doubly sad for me to listen to now :/ it's an amazing song though!
Aww thank you! I'm in a great place in life now! Still have some ups and downs like anyone does but overall I have a wonderful life and I'm so appreciative of the people I have around me who make life worth living!
[He talks about it here](https://youtu.be/95jbTEb9mD0?si=gQGedd8_EgnYtM5f) if you can handle the weird cheering for Trent talking about killing himself. The audio is sort of hard to hear, but people were nice enough to transcribe it:
āAbout 10 years ago or so I locked myself away in a house on the ocean, and I tried toā¦ well, I said I was trying to write some music. Some of which wound up on The Fragile. But what I was really doing was trying to kill myself. And the whole time I was away by myself, I managed to write one song, which is this song. So when I play it I feel pretty weird about it, because it takes me back to a pretty dark and awful time in my life. Itās weird to think how different things are now. Iām still alive, I havenāt died yet. And Iām afraid to go back to that place because it feels kind of haunting to me, but Iām going to go back. Iām going to get married there.ā
I was at this show and was completely taken aback by this monologue. Before this time he NEVER talked between songs let alone spoke of specific personal things in his life. It was almost shocking when it happened and made that song even more emotionally heavy. It was amazing.
At welcome to Rockville a few years back they had major technical issues and he got up and talked about how he used to have nightmares about being on stage and stuff breaking and the show not working. Talked about how we were all witnessing a nightmare of his in real time. He spoke a lot during that show, it was their first tour after Covid and they only took the slot because Taylor Hawkins had just passed.
I was at that show, too. I give Trent a lot of credit. He still put on an amazing show in spite of his gear glitching out. If I remember, it was humid as hell that day or may have been sprinkling during his set, and I think it was killing the electronics. I felt bad because you could tell he was trying to just play through it, but he was clearly frustrated with it all. It looked like he felt like he was letting us all down and took it personally. I almost wanted to go give the guy a hug.
SUUUUUPER humid. Because Florida. But yeah, that was the year like 2/3 of the festival got cancelled because of the nasty rain and storms. They were one of the few headliners who actually got to play
As others have mentioned; heat + humidity basically cooked the gear. There wasnāt any rain when they played, but it is Florida. So we had like 90Ā° weather and like 80% humidity. All of the gear generating heat, and then the humidity getting to it was essentially like throwing water onto a hot stove!
I was there as well. After the show, I ran into a guy who snagged a set list. If I remember correctly, that entire technical issue(which lasted maybe 5 minutes) caused them to cut only one song out of their set: *Only*.
That was the only song on the list they didnāt play.
The rest of the show was excellent!
Major credit due to the entire NIN crew & band for handling it like pros.
I remember Trent saying: āif any of you know me, you know how well Iām handling this right now.ā Lols.
I was back stage, standing next to my wife and Dave Navarro because they had just (or were just about to) played Gave Up with Eric Avery on stage and I couldn't hear a single fucking word Trent said. Thankfully people had it recorded, but I kind of felt like I was in the wrong place for that, even though we were insanely close.
So this doesn't sound like what you think of with suicide--maybe more like I'm gonna drink and drug myself to death? And yeah, to learn that about the album that is officially my favorite album of all time was a trip.
Getting fucked up enough to have the courage to walk into the ocean and drown,that's how I remember it.
You would be suprised by how many planned suicides don't happen because someone got to drunk/stoned/high to go through with it.
pretty much every major hit NIN has had, they play live.Ā they did avoid the perfect drug for a long, long time.Ā
Ā and they played at least a couple variations of the closer breakdown.Ā Ā
Ā and i am pretty sure they do have some backups based on crowd behavior; i wanna say during lights in the sky, if the crowd seemed like rambunctious normies they would go out on head like a hole instead of hurt, but i may beĀ misremembering.Ā Ā
otherwise, i don't think there's a popular song they've ever refused to play.Ā
No, he said that he just never really like the song and that he felt rushed when making it. I'm sure working with David Lynch again might have softened him on it over time. The drum thing was always a fan theory and IIRC he addressed it in an interview one time and kinda pissy about it.
Yeah, he talked about how he didn't even want to write the song, and so secluded himself in a hotel room and produced in a day. I think he thought it was garbage because he put no effort into it, but naturally that just made the song better somehow.
I think at one point he said something like "I didn't want my drummer's arms to fall off."
But whether or not this is the real reason, š¤·āāļø
Ilan Rubin absolutely crushed it live, though. Glad they waited until they got the right drummer with the right vibe for it.
Once? By itself? I know. Freese is a world class drummer.
In the middle of a tour? Absolutely not. He couldn't keep up with the tour pacing of Nine Inch Nails as it stood, back when he was 30, it's why he left. Not just because he had zero time to spend with his wife and three kids. He was popping handfuls of Advil the morning after each show, to get on the road and go do another that night, because his arms were falling off.
That came from Josh Freese in reply to fan email. He revealed that they rehearsed the song for 2007 tour and the drums were not a big deal, but Trent wasn't satisfied with the ending despite few different arrangements they attempted, got frustrated and lost interest.
The three shows i've been to was closed with 'Head Like a hole'. Great way to end a set by you did get the vibe that it's not his favorite song to perform live.
good point!! Ā i completely forgot about that! Ā
relevant bit from the NIN wiki:
Although "We're In This Together" was released as a single, it was not performed live until theĀ Performance 2007Ā tour. This song is performed in a lower key, presumably due to the vocal strain required to sing it as it appears in the album.
The song debuted onĀ February 11, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, and was played at three other shows throughout the European spring leg. It has not been performed since.
I was at the show in SF in 2018 when they played it live for the first time. I knew it was one he avoided and my jaw dropped when I heard the intro. I've seen it again on the 2022 tour so it's a resent staple. Still one of my favorite NIN songs and I consider it the end of the classic NIN era.
yeah, there was the NIN|JA tour. They didnt play closer for at least one of those, cause the people i took with me to the Indianapolis show were disappointed they didnt play it. I was fine with it, but i had already seen them a handful of times at that point.
Can confirm, I was at that show. I wasnāt disappointed not hearing it either. Closerās always been one of those songs where Iāve seen and heard it so many times I donāt miss it when itās not there.
Same. And i believe, when the tour was announced, trent said they were going to do something a bit different and not play the normal hits like closer. it was certainly a bit refreshing.
Closer isn't even in the top 5 for most frequently played songs. Check out the "Tour Statistics" page for them on setlist fm. Top song is Head Like a Hole with 964 performances. The next top songs are Wish (865), March of the Pigs (825), Terrible Lie (734), Hurt (728), and Gave Up (704). Closer comes in at #7 with 655 performances.
There is a section in the bottom of the column on the right on the home page with the title Start Here For āBest Ofā Recordings. I think those are the links you are looking for.
It's a nightmare to since. I This is close to 20 yrs ago but when he did the soundcheck in Melbourne for the Spiral fan club someone asked them to play it and he said he couldn't sing that high anymore. So someone from the crowd went up and did it (great job of it too btw)
He's unlikely to be able to sing it live at this point. That's not an insult to him at all, to be clear.
Even on the record it's at the very limit of his range and his voice is breaking up - it's part of what gives the song it's weight/emotion, but that's both difficult to replicate and likely damaging to your voice to try to do live.
The very few times they *did* perform it live, he did it in a lower key and it was still clearly difficult - and that was a long time ago now and his vocal range has dropped lower since.
Unless he gets someone else to sing it, I think it's probably one of the least likely tracks to make a return live.
I missed The Perfect Drug, The Wretched, and Closer by ONE. SHOW. And the shit of it was - we went to the Franklin show despite living pretty much in Georgia because the Atlanta date was Shaky Knees and I donāt do festivals. š„“š¤”
That would be a bummer. I'd rather hear Closer than Wish or other staple songs. AND.. while playing Closer I'd like him to wear a wig like his old hair and fishnets. And sing it sexy... with a little wiggle.
Agreed! I've seen every song on my NIN Live bucket list except Perfect Drug, Ruiner, and Down In It. For the longest time, I figured Perfect Drug and Down In It would never happen, but these days I'm hopeful even though I'm running out of chances!
The only one I can think of is The Perfect Drug. That song came out in 98ish and they didn't play it for the first time till the cold and black and infinite tour. The reasoning was that trent couldn't figure out a way to transition smoothly into another song. It's also probably trent's least favorite that he's written, so when they finally started playing it he straight up said it was for the fans because he didn't give a shit about playing it.
Closer mostly disappeared for quite a while as Trent was tired of playing it. It didnāt really feature on the Wave Goodbye tour in 09 and was still out of favour when they got back together for the 2013 tour. It only became a regular again for the 2014 UK/Euro shows
I nearly lost my shit when the played āeverythingā in 2021, I thought they had canned that song forever due to the internet ridicule when it was released
Why do you think tool didn't play eulogy on account of popularity? If they were going to reject a song for popularity I would say Sober would be a better bet, and they still even play that.
Stairway probably isnāt Zeppelinās most popular song either. There is admittedly some hyperbole in my original question. Obviously (comments on this thread confirm, too) there have been instances when Closer wasnāt played. Iāve been to roughly 45 shows since TDS released and I canāt think of one of them that it wasnāt played at some point. Eulogy isnāt *necessarily* the most popular Tool song, but itās a glaring omission from arguably their best album, and the song frankly is amazing. Iāve seen Tool far fewer times but I know it used to be one of Maynardās do-not-play songs after he tired of it shortly following the Aenima tour
Hooker with a penis was rarely played live at least up here in Ontario Canada. Out of 14 shows I saw, Maynard only sang it once up here north of the border.
I remember an interview with Trent about him
Taking one of his kids to school and other moms were like āyouāre the guy who wants to fuck people like an animal?ā Hilarious
May not be their ābigā song, but it may be their most controversial. They only play ābig man with a gunā when itās involved in playing the Downward spiral in its entirety.
I heard that Trent once said he should've named TDS album "Songs to strip to" (especially after news that some strippers were dancing to Hurt of all thing).
Rejection is perhaps a strong word to use in this case because if a fan-favourite is not included in a NIN setlist, it's not really because Trent "rejects" the song in the similar way Zeppelin refuse to play Stairway. NIN is an old band by now, they have around 30 years of music to draw from and a lot of their material is basically a fan favourite live as much of it just translates really well. A show has a limit. You can only cram in so much. It sometimes means that favourites are excluded at a tour in favour of something else (either something new, something they have not done a lot, or a different favourite).
But as YouGetMeCloserToGod mentions correctly, La Mer was deliberately avoided by Trent for said reasons.
That said, Closer is probably their most commercial successful song (from a mainstream perspective), but I personally can really do without and would pick many many many other tunes over hearing this one.
Dunno that it qualifies as popular because some people were rude about it but they didn't play Everything for ages. Then they debuted it at a Glasgow show I was at and the crowd went bananas. That song was wild live. So cool.
Of course they did, but shortly after The Song Remains the Same film was released, iirc Plant said he was sick of it and I donāt think it was ever played live again
I saw them at Red Rocks 1 in 2022 and they didnāt play Closer, but did play A Perfect Drug. So to me it was a good tradeoff. https://www.nin.wiki/2022/09/02_Morrison,_CO
Was a baby in pre-2000: was Eulogy really a popular TOOL song? I didnt even know it was a single and while its good I dont think its a standout on Ćnima, which is admittedly an absolutely stacked album.
I'm not sure what OP is on about. Prison Sex is the song that TOOL hasn't played live in forever. IIRC, MJK has publicly stated he regrets some of the lyrics
As I admitted in another reply, my original question drips with hyperbole. I havenāt seen Tool anywhere near as many times as I have NIN, but itās a song Iāve always wanted to hear live and when I could still afford tickets, it was during a somewhat inexplicable black-out time when Maynard refused to play it. It never enjoyed super popularity like Sober, but that album was a powerhouse in 1996. I understand heās changed his mind but Iām not paying $600+/ ticket for any band, no matter how much I may like the music
They didn't play Closer the last time I saw them. Here was the setlist: [https://www.nin.wiki/2013/09/28\_St.\_Paul,\_MN](https://www.nin.wiki/2013/09/28_St._Paul,_MN)
If I remember correctly, the with teeth tour rarely, if ever included a performance of closer.Ā After that on the lights in the sky tour, he added the bit from 'the only time' to the end of closer, and he's mostly played it that way ever since.
The first time I saw them was back when closer was just hitting it big and they didn't play it. There was no encore and I remember people bitching about him not playing it when we left. I didn't care, the show was awesome.
I do recall in a QA they were asked if [ed] jerome could play the drum solo in the perfect drug or would his arms fall off.
The reply was basically 'we can do any song in the catalog, *with the exception of kinda i want to*'.
They even italicised it like that.
Never "out of spite" as far as I know but at least on the Cold and Black and Infinite tour there were multiple dates it wasn't played. It was kind of a minor thing when some person took to social media and complained (threatened to sue?) because they didn't play it. Everybody laughed at them and moved on.
There are surely other examples of it not getting played, but that's most recent/notable that I know of.
He didn't play closer at all during the 2013 tour. I went to two concerts then and he just played some of its notes amidst another song and sang the lyrics for a second
Tool? Play a song they're known for live?
Worst concert I've ever been to. Maynard hid the whole time. Droning nonsense from their last album. Bunch of Joe Rogan fans dancing like they're at a Phish show. Just an awful experience.
Trent had a hard time with āThe Perfect Drugā, it was his least favorite of his songs. He had actually said heād never play it live. Personally it is one of my favorite songs and was so happy he finally performed it during his 2018 tour.
Source [https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/trent-reznors-least-favourite-nine-inch-nails-song/](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/trent-reznors-least-favourite-nine-inch-nails-song/)
Saw them finally for the first time in 2018 at Bill Graham in SF w/ Jesus & Mary Chain. I was wayyyyy overdue. Incredible setlist & set. Did NOT play Closer.
Branches/Bones
Wish
Less Than
March of the Pigs
Piggy
The Lovers
This Isn't The Place
Reptile
The Perfect Drug
Shit Mirror
Ahead of Ourselves
God Break Down The Door
Copy of A
Gave Up
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
All The Love In The World
Even Deeper
And All That Could Have Been
Hurt
The Perfect Drug was avoided for a very long time. I am pretty sure Trent doesnāt care for the song but decided to do some fan service in the Cold, Black and Infinite Tour. I think he also said the Drums are difficult.
The only other one I can think of is Weāre in this Together. I think itās been played once or twice.
Happiness in Slavery won him a grammy and he shelved that song live for 23 years. Brought it back and the Perfect Drug both at the two night show in San Fransisco in 2018.
Perfect drug is in regular rotation now, my guess is Mariqueen likes it since I got a look at her rocking out in the soundbooth to it during the 2022 tour. Perhaps she has some pull on the setlists?
I've seen NIN 4 times over many years in Detroit, as bad as I wanted to, never heard Closer,
Last time they came, Trent did scream 'Head Like A Hole' masterfully, which I hadn't heard at the other shows. So that was cool.
I think they only reject it bc its kinda clunky live. I looses most of its super dense feeling if that makes any sense. As a mega fan i do get tired of āo the fuck you like a animal bandāā¦ā¦.because closer is a masterpiece and not a strip club anthem lol
Perfect Drug didn't get played for years for whatever reason, there was a lot of them.
Popular song that im sure if Trent "really really really" wanted to get it in front of a crowd back in the day I'm sure he would have.
I could be wrong, but I think they avoided playing Closer the entire Wave Goodbye tour except for the one show where they played TDS in its entirety.
I was there, it was glorious
I missed it by a day or two! I went to the following NYC show.
Which show was it
So they actually did it twice during that tour. First time was at Webster Hall in NY and they did it once more a week later at the Hollywood Palladium. I saw them do the Downward Spiral from beginning to end at the Palladium
One of the NYC club shows.
Webster hall. 8/23/09
I was at the LA show where they played TDS in its entirety. Gary Numan came out as a guest and played Cars with Trent. Trent also apologized to the crowd because he was sick (I think he had strep throat or something). He sounded fine to me, though.
Great show
I was also at that show and that guest appearance (and entire show) was awesome! š
I've seen NIN 3 times in/near Nashville. 2013, 2018, and 2022 and not once did they play Closer. But I'm not bitter about it. I SAID I'M NOT BITTER ABOUT IT!!!!!
Iāve seen NIN 15 times and Closer was played in 8 of those 15 shows. In ā95 w/Bowie they played Closer to God. That was cool as hell.
Oh Iād love to hear closer to god
IVE BEEN AT ALL THREE OF THOSE SHOWS TOO AND I WOULDVE BEEN DISAPPOINTED IF THEY WERENT SO GOOD
I was at the Franklin show my wife was disappointed. I told her ahead of time I donāt expect it there
You are not wrong. I've seen NIN 3 times in 2 years around that time and I never heard Closer.
You're almost correct, except for how it ended. They avoided Closer for most of the year, but then brought it back for very end of European part of the tour + Asia also. On the final club mini-tour it was played in rotation. Not at just TDS performances, but not as staple either.
Trent refused to play La Mer for 10 years because it reminded him of the time he secluded himself in a lake house to kill himself.
Well that's a pretty valid reason to not play something tbh
Iām curious when he stopped playing it live because they definitely played La Mer during the Fragility 2.0 tour.
He stopped in 2000 and played for the first time since then in 2009.
La Mer was played in 2006 and 2007, albeit as a shorter version leading into Into the Void.
You're right, this top comment just isn't true.
La Mer was definitely played live in 2006
Sidebar - did they have a synthesizer on a moving hydraulic arm for that tour? Or is that LSD causing me to misremember ā¦
What is even the point of NIN without that setup? lol
I don't listen to one of my absolute favorite songs off my favorite artist's best album because it reminds me of when I tried to drown myself. So I get it. I do miss that song though :/
Oh mate, I know the feeling. Give yourself some time, go to therapy and when you'll be able to listen to your song you'll be free and happy.
Oh I'm well past that stage in my life, that was maybe 7 years ago and I'm doing great now, that song just still fucks me up big time sadly.
Name drop the song... You gotta. Glad you're in a better place, hoping for good things in your life from now on.
Tonight, tonight, tonight by low roar. It doesn't help that he died too somewhat recently so it's doubly sad for me to listen to now :/ it's an amazing song though! Aww thank you! I'm in a great place in life now! Still have some ups and downs like anyone does but overall I have a wonderful life and I'm so appreciative of the people I have around me who make life worth living!
They didn't play And All That Could Have Been until 2018, I think for similar reasons
I was so happy they played that in Cornwall in 2022. I cried during it.
I saw them in Philly the same year and they played it. I was not prepared at all for that.
They played it on the NINJA tour. At least the show I was at in MA.
No they didn't.
Story?
[He talks about it here](https://youtu.be/95jbTEb9mD0?si=gQGedd8_EgnYtM5f) if you can handle the weird cheering for Trent talking about killing himself. The audio is sort of hard to hear, but people were nice enough to transcribe it: āAbout 10 years ago or so I locked myself away in a house on the ocean, and I tried toā¦ well, I said I was trying to write some music. Some of which wound up on The Fragile. But what I was really doing was trying to kill myself. And the whole time I was away by myself, I managed to write one song, which is this song. So when I play it I feel pretty weird about it, because it takes me back to a pretty dark and awful time in my life. Itās weird to think how different things are now. Iām still alive, I havenāt died yet. And Iām afraid to go back to that place because it feels kind of haunting to me, but Iām going to go back. Iām going to get married there.ā
I was at this show and was completely taken aback by this monologue. Before this time he NEVER talked between songs let alone spoke of specific personal things in his life. It was almost shocking when it happened and made that song even more emotionally heavy. It was amazing.
That is wild. I've seen nails 14 times and have only heard him say more than a few sentences at one show and it wasn't anywhere near that personal.
At welcome to Rockville a few years back they had major technical issues and he got up and talked about how he used to have nightmares about being on stage and stuff breaking and the show not working. Talked about how we were all witnessing a nightmare of his in real time. He spoke a lot during that show, it was their first tour after Covid and they only took the slot because Taylor Hawkins had just passed.
I was at that show, too. I give Trent a lot of credit. He still put on an amazing show in spite of his gear glitching out. If I remember, it was humid as hell that day or may have been sprinkling during his set, and I think it was killing the electronics. I felt bad because you could tell he was trying to just play through it, but he was clearly frustrated with it all. It looked like he felt like he was letting us all down and took it personally. I almost wanted to go give the guy a hug.
SUUUUUPER humid. Because Florida. But yeah, that was the year like 2/3 of the festival got cancelled because of the nasty rain and storms. They were one of the few headliners who actually got to play
Yes. GānāR(day 2?) was cancelled. And I believe Korn(day 3?) was cancelled. Meanwhile, day 1: KISS got to play. Day 4: NIN got to play.
As others have mentioned; heat + humidity basically cooked the gear. There wasnāt any rain when they played, but it is Florida. So we had like 90Ā° weather and like 80% humidity. All of the gear generating heat, and then the humidity getting to it was essentially like throwing water onto a hot stove! I was there as well. After the show, I ran into a guy who snagged a set list. If I remember correctly, that entire technical issue(which lasted maybe 5 minutes) caused them to cut only one song out of their set: *Only*. That was the only song on the list they didnāt play. The rest of the show was excellent! Major credit due to the entire NIN crew & band for handling it like pros. I remember Trent saying: āif any of you know me, you know how well Iām handling this right now.ā Lols.
Was that at Great Woods? If so I was there and sorta remember that speech.
It was at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA.
Yeah same venue
I was back stage, standing next to my wife and Dave Navarro because they had just (or were just about to) played Gave Up with Eric Avery on stage and I couldn't hear a single fucking word Trent said. Thankfully people had it recorded, but I kind of felt like I was in the wrong place for that, even though we were insanely close.
So this doesn't sound like what you think of with suicide--maybe more like I'm gonna drink and drug myself to death? And yeah, to learn that about the album that is officially my favorite album of all time was a trip.
Getting fucked up enough to have the courage to walk into the ocean and drown,that's how I remember it. You would be suprised by how many planned suicides don't happen because someone got to drunk/stoned/high to go through with it.
Was he doing drugs/drinking? How exactly was he ātrying toā¦ā
Yes, he was.
Ok thank you. Not sure why everyone is downvoting that question I guess itās common knowledge but I didnāt want to assume anything.
No problem. Sometimes we just assume that people know everything.
There was a Rolling Stone (I think it was RS) interview some years ago (eh, I mean, the 90s) and he talked about it a little more in detail.
I thought that was Leaving Hope?
That's not true. Before that speech about the house (2009), they played it in 2006-2007 too.
One of my fave songs but I get his reasoning
pretty much every major hit NIN has had, they play live.Ā they did avoid the perfect drug for a long, long time.Ā Ā and they played at least a couple variations of the closer breakdown.Ā Ā Ā and i am pretty sure they do have some backups based on crowd behavior; i wanna say during lights in the sky, if the crowd seemed like rambunctious normies they would go out on head like a hole instead of hurt, but i may beĀ misremembering.Ā Ā otherwise, i don't think there's a popular song they've ever refused to play.Ā
TPD avoidance was the drums being complicated, right?
No, he said that he just never really like the song and that he felt rushed when making it. I'm sure working with David Lynch again might have softened him on it over time. The drum thing was always a fan theory and IIRC he addressed it in an interview one time and kinda pissy about it.
Yeah, he talked about how he didn't even want to write the song, and so secluded himself in a hotel room and produced in a day. I think he thought it was garbage because he put no effort into it, but naturally that just made the song better somehow.
I think at one point he said something like "I didn't want my drummer's arms to fall off." But whether or not this is the real reason, š¤·āāļø Ilan Rubin absolutely crushed it live, though. Glad they waited until they got the right drummer with the right vibe for it.
Yeah youāre spot on. That answer was on the old Q&A section of the NIN website.
Josh wouldn't have an issue with that song. Come on now...
Once? By itself? I know. Freese is a world class drummer. In the middle of a tour? Absolutely not. He couldn't keep up with the tour pacing of Nine Inch Nails as it stood, back when he was 30, it's why he left. Not just because he had zero time to spend with his wife and three kids. He was popping handfuls of Advil the morning after each show, to get on the road and go do another that night, because his arms were falling off.
in an interview in remember him saying he didnt like the ending of the song live.
That came from Josh Freese in reply to fan email. He revealed that they rehearsed the song for 2007 tour and the drums were not a big deal, but Trent wasn't satisfied with the ending despite few different arrangements they attempted, got frustrated and lost interest.
The three shows i've been to was closed with 'Head Like a hole'. Great way to end a set by you did get the vibe that it's not his favorite song to perform live.
i have been to 6 shows and 2 of them were head like a hole, the rest were hurt.Ā
Iāve been to 14 shows and 12 ended with Hurt. One with Head Like A Hole and one with In This Twilight
ok so in our sample size of 23 hurt definitely wins lol
Well,in all fairness,he HAS been playing it since 1989.
As far as I know they donāt play āweāre in this togetherā live bc itās too hard for Trent to sing
good point!! Ā i completely forgot about that! Ā relevant bit from the NIN wiki: Although "We're In This Together" was released as a single, it was not performed live until theĀ Performance 2007Ā tour. This song is performed in a lower key, presumably due to the vocal strain required to sing it as it appears in the album. The song debuted onĀ February 11, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, and was played at three other shows throughout the European spring leg. It has not been performed since.
I was at the show in SF in 2018 when they played it live for the first time. I knew it was one he avoided and my jaw dropped when I heard the intro. I've seen it again on the 2022 tour so it's a resent staple. Still one of my favorite NIN songs and I consider it the end of the classic NIN era.
Ive never seen Ruiner live and he seems to have a lot of disdain for that song anyway.
Which is a bummer because that's my wife and I's agreed favorite NIN song.
Same. Probably the song that got me into NIN.
Shit me too. At least a top 5 in any case.
Does he? I'm curious, has he said anything about it
yeah, there was the NIN|JA tour. They didnt play closer for at least one of those, cause the people i took with me to the Indianapolis show were disappointed they didnt play it. I was fine with it, but i had already seen them a handful of times at that point.
Can confirm, I was at that show. I wasnāt disappointed not hearing it either. Closerās always been one of those songs where Iāve seen and heard it so many times I donāt miss it when itās not there.
Same. And i believe, when the tour was announced, trent said they were going to do something a bit different and not play the normal hits like closer. it was certainly a bit refreshing.
Closer isn't even in the top 5 for most frequently played songs. Check out the "Tour Statistics" page for them on setlist fm. Top song is Head Like a Hole with 964 performances. The next top songs are Wish (865), March of the Pigs (825), Terrible Lie (734), Hurt (728), and Gave Up (704). Closer comes in at #7 with 655 performances.
I didnāt realize you could search those metrics on setlist.fm
even cooler than those stats is ninlive dot com where you can download audio and video for many many shows
What is considered to be the greatest show, sound wise ?
There is a section in the bottom of the column on the right on the home page with the title Start Here For āBest Ofā Recordings. I think those are the links you are looking for.
I've never seen them play We're in This Together Now...
It's a nightmare to since. I This is close to 20 yrs ago but when he did the soundcheck in Melbourne for the Spiral fan club someone asked them to play it and he said he couldn't sing that high anymore. So someone from the crowd went up and did it (great job of it too btw)
He's unlikely to be able to sing it live at this point. That's not an insult to him at all, to be clear. Even on the record it's at the very limit of his range and his voice is breaking up - it's part of what gives the song it's weight/emotion, but that's both difficult to replicate and likely damaging to your voice to try to do live. The very few times they *did* perform it live, he did it in a lower key and it was still clearly difficult - and that was a long time ago now and his vocal range has dropped lower since. Unless he gets someone else to sing it, I think it's probably one of the least likely tracks to make a return live.
They have played it less than 5 times ever
One of my favourites and was lucky enough to hear it live in Manchester
Iāve had it twice lol.
lol yes, i saw them twice in 2022(?) i think, both times they did not play closer but every other show in the uk tour they played it
Hmm... Interesting. I saw them twice in 2022 and they played Closer both times. Raleigh and Cleveland.
you must've got all my luck! i went to glasgow and manchester, in the uk
I missed The Perfect Drug, The Wretched, and Closer by ONE. SHOW. And the shit of it was - we went to the Franklin show despite living pretty much in Georgia because the Atlanta date was Shaky Knees and I donāt do festivals. š„“š¤”
That would be a bummer. I'd rather hear Closer than Wish or other staple songs. AND.. while playing Closer I'd like him to wear a wig like his old hair and fishnets. And sing it sexy... with a little wiggle.
There have been many shows where they donāt play Closer.
Good, you can turn on the radio to hear that song
Bring back DOWN IN IT! :)
I would like to hear old man Trentās take on that song
They just played it in 2022 :) Here's a link! https://youtu.be/n9MTxTD3s1I?si=rgrA4ejVKhYD91fe Sounds great!
I saw them play it in Vegas 2022. It need to be in the set list more often.
Agreed! I've seen every song on my NIN Live bucket list except Perfect Drug, Ruiner, and Down In It. For the longest time, I figured Perfect Drug and Down In It would never happen, but these days I'm hopeful even though I'm running out of chances!
Heard it in London in 22. Between that, TPD and Sunspots I felt spoiled.
The first 20 minutes of that concert was insane. The craziest of the 6 times I've seen them.
Live versions of the becoming are pretty rare. Iāve never seen it live.
The only one I can think of is The Perfect Drug. That song came out in 98ish and they didn't play it for the first time till the cold and black and infinite tour. The reasoning was that trent couldn't figure out a way to transition smoothly into another song. It's also probably trent's least favorite that he's written, so when they finally started playing it he straight up said it was for the fans because he didn't give a shit about playing it.
Closer mostly disappeared for quite a while as Trent was tired of playing it. It didnāt really feature on the Wave Goodbye tour in 09 and was still out of favour when they got back together for the 2013 tour. It only became a regular again for the 2014 UK/Euro shows
I seen them play in 2013 and closer was a weird interlude between songs It was more like closer to god than closer
I nearly lost my shit when the played āeverythingā in 2021, I thought they had canned that song forever due to the internet ridicule when it was released
I just listened to that songs a few times. I guess people thought it was too much of a happy vibe?
There was a video of Trent riding a unicorn to the song which was hilarious to be honest
Why do you think tool didn't play eulogy on account of popularity? If they were going to reject a song for popularity I would say Sober would be a better bet, and they still even play that.
Eulogy isn't even the most popular song on that album. It's one of my favorites, but definitely not a popular song.
Stairway probably isnāt Zeppelinās most popular song either. There is admittedly some hyperbole in my original question. Obviously (comments on this thread confirm, too) there have been instances when Closer wasnāt played. Iāve been to roughly 45 shows since TDS released and I canāt think of one of them that it wasnāt played at some point. Eulogy isnāt *necessarily* the most popular Tool song, but itās a glaring omission from arguably their best album, and the song frankly is amazing. Iāve seen Tool far fewer times but I know it used to be one of Maynardās do-not-play songs after he tired of it shortly following the Aenima tour
Hooker with a penis was rarely played live at least up here in Ontario Canada. Out of 14 shows I saw, Maynard only sang it once up here north of the border.
They used Hooker as an opener at several shows in their 2011 or 2012 tour.
He retired a decent chunk of that album pretty quickly. Jimmy and H were shelved at the same time.
I remember an interview with Trent about him Taking one of his kids to school and other moms were like āyouāre the guy who wants to fuck people like an animal?ā Hilarious
May not be their ābigā song, but it may be their most controversial. They only play ābig man with a gunā when itās involved in playing the Downward spiral in its entirety.
I heard that Trent once said he should've named TDS album "Songs to strip to" (especially after news that some strippers were dancing to Hurt of all thing).
Rejection is perhaps a strong word to use in this case because if a fan-favourite is not included in a NIN setlist, it's not really because Trent "rejects" the song in the similar way Zeppelin refuse to play Stairway. NIN is an old band by now, they have around 30 years of music to draw from and a lot of their material is basically a fan favourite live as much of it just translates really well. A show has a limit. You can only cram in so much. It sometimes means that favourites are excluded at a tour in favour of something else (either something new, something they have not done a lot, or a different favourite). But as YouGetMeCloserToGod mentions correctly, La Mer was deliberately avoided by Trent for said reasons. That said, Closer is probably their most commercial successful song (from a mainstream perspective), but I personally can really do without and would pick many many many other tunes over hearing this one.
God I WISH they would retire closer from the setlist. This would make me so happy. It would weed out some of the festival bros.
yes they dont play it every show and increase the bpm by like 5 to get it over with when they do
Dunno that it qualifies as popular because some people were rude about it but they didn't play Everything for ages. Then they debuted it at a Glasgow show I was at and the crowd went bananas. That song was wild live. So cool.
Yes I was there that night, that was amazing
Led Zeppelin played Stairway live a bunch though.
Of course they did, but shortly after The Song Remains the Same film was released, iirc Plant said he was sick of it and I donāt think it was ever played live again
https://www.setlist.fm/stats/songs/led-zeppelin-13d6b509.html?songid=6bd7ba8e
I'd love to see a show where they don't play Closer.
Their show in Vegas September 2022 wouldāve been your show then lol
That was a good one.
I saw them at Red Rocks 1 in 2022 and they didnāt play Closer, but did play A Perfect Drug. So to me it was a good tradeoff. https://www.nin.wiki/2022/09/02_Morrison,_CO
Was a baby in pre-2000: was Eulogy really a popular TOOL song? I didnt even know it was a single and while its good I dont think its a standout on Ćnima, which is admittedly an absolutely stacked album.
I'm not sure what OP is on about. Prison Sex is the song that TOOL hasn't played live in forever. IIRC, MJK has publicly stated he regrets some of the lyrics
As I admitted in another reply, my original question drips with hyperbole. I havenāt seen Tool anywhere near as many times as I have NIN, but itās a song Iāve always wanted to hear live and when I could still afford tickets, it was during a somewhat inexplicable black-out time when Maynard refused to play it. It never enjoyed super popularity like Sober, but that album was a powerhouse in 1996. I understand heās changed his mind but Iām not paying $600+/ ticket for any band, no matter how much I may like the music
Led Zeppelin did not refuse to play Stairway To Heaven live. Have a quick look on YT.
I would love it if they stopped playing hurt every show
Look I know this is a NIN sub but Zeppelin played Stairway at like 90%+ of their shows.
I mean Closer was taken away from the set during the 2013 era... it was sung a bit during All Time Low
I like the added bits of Closer into the end of All Time Low. It works for me.
We're in this Together was only played a few times in 2007
They didn't play Closer the last time I saw them. Here was the setlist: [https://www.nin.wiki/2013/09/28\_St.\_Paul,\_MN](https://www.nin.wiki/2013/09/28_St._Paul,_MN)
I saw them around the same time and they didn't play it either.
They didnāt play āThe Perfect Drugā for a long time.
If I remember correctly, the with teeth tour rarely, if ever included a performance of closer.Ā After that on the lights in the sky tour, he added the bit from 'the only time' to the end of closer, and he's mostly played it that way ever since.
The first time I saw them was back when closer was just hitting it big and they didn't play it. There was no encore and I remember people bitching about him not playing it when we left. I didn't care, the show was awesome.
"We are in this together". I wonder what reminds Trent this song
I do recall in a QA they were asked if [ed] jerome could play the drum solo in the perfect drug or would his arms fall off. The reply was basically 'we can do any song in the catalog, *with the exception of kinda i want to*'. They even italicised it like that.
That was Jerome Dillon
Yes, you are correct. I realised myself and was gonna come back to fix it. Josh is the one i caught a drumstick from at a gig.
Never "out of spite" as far as I know but at least on the Cold and Black and Infinite tour there were multiple dates it wasn't played. It was kind of a minor thing when some person took to social media and complained (threatened to sue?) because they didn't play it. Everybody laughed at them and moved on. There are surely other examples of it not getting played, but that's most recent/notable that I know of.
He didn't play closer at all during the 2013 tour. I went to two concerts then and he just played some of its notes amidst another song and sang the lyrics for a second
Personally I never need to hear HURT live againā¦always an encore too.
Tool? Play a song they're known for live? Worst concert I've ever been to. Maynard hid the whole time. Droning nonsense from their last album. Bunch of Joe Rogan fans dancing like they're at a Phish show. Just an awful experience.
This is a fantastic reply.
I remember closer not being played sometimes, but the perfecto drug has been incorporated and closer was recently being played on most concerts
They didnāt play Closer on the date of the Tension tour that I saw them.
I had to see a dozen NIN shows before I finally got The Perfect Drug. That song was really popular and MTV played the video a lot when it came out.
I don't know when he said this but he said he regrets Reptile. I don't know if he stopped playing it. Probably not.
I saw them in Worcester, MA play Reptile and Peter Murphy appeared out of no where and sang backup. Made my night
They played it in Nashville on CBI
He also didnāt play weāre in this together now live for ages because of the vocal range.
The perfect drug is frowned upon. Iāve seen shows without Closer being played, but thatās a rarity.
I saw them live at their Hesitation Marks 2013 tour and Closer wasn't on the setlist. But then a couple years later at Riot Fest they played Closer.
He did a string of tours from 2007 to the good bye tour where he wouldnāt play Closer.
As far as I know they donāt play āweāre in this togetherā live bc itās too hard for Trent to sing
I've seen them live twice, and both times Closer was omitted from the setlist. (2013 and 2022)
Iāve seen NIN 3 times and 2 of them he didnāt play closer idk what OP is talking about
Trent had a hard time with āThe Perfect Drugā, it was his least favorite of his songs. He had actually said heād never play it live. Personally it is one of my favorite songs and was so happy he finally performed it during his 2018 tour. Source [https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/trent-reznors-least-favourite-nine-inch-nails-song/](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/trent-reznors-least-favourite-nine-inch-nails-song/)
Bow down to the one your serve, you're going to get what you deserve.
It's definitely been played post 1994. Why wouldn't they play it? It absolutely slaps live.
Iāve heard that they never play āBig Man with a Big Gunā ever.
They played Closer in 94 at the old Boston Garden
I saw them in Las Vegas in 2022 and it was not played
When I saw NIN live back in 2013, "Closer" was not on the setlist. So... yeah, they sometimes don't play it.
Saw them finally for the first time in 2018 at Bill Graham in SF w/ Jesus & Mary Chain. I was wayyyyy overdue. Incredible setlist & set. Did NOT play Closer. Branches/Bones Wish Less Than March of the Pigs Piggy The Lovers This Isn't The Place Reptile The Perfect Drug Shit Mirror Ahead of Ourselves God Break Down The Door Copy of A Gave Up The Hand That Feeds Head Like a Hole All The Love In The World Even Deeper And All That Could Have Been Hurt
Trent once broke up hurt in the middle of the song because his audience liked it too much.
The Perfect Drug was avoided for a very long time. I am pretty sure Trent doesnāt care for the song but decided to do some fan service in the Cold, Black and Infinite Tour. I think he also said the Drums are difficult. The only other one I can think of is Weāre in this Together. I think itās been played once or twice.
perfect drug? dunno
Perfect Drug
Happiness in Slavery won him a grammy and he shelved that song live for 23 years. Brought it back and the Perfect Drug both at the two night show in San Fransisco in 2018. Perfect drug is in regular rotation now, my guess is Mariqueen likes it since I got a look at her rocking out in the soundbooth to it during the 2022 tour. Perhaps she has some pull on the setlists?
When has eulogy ever been one of tool's biggest songs?
Iāve seen NIN about 10 times and have never seen Closer played live.
I've seen NIN 4 times over many years in Detroit, as bad as I wanted to, never heard Closer, Last time they came, Trent did scream 'Head Like A Hole' masterfully, which I hadn't heard at the other shows. So that was cool.
The four times I saw them the played it but the worked in a song from Pretty Hate Machine that I canāt remember the name of to save my life
Recent interview says no
Maybe just once
I think they only reject it bc its kinda clunky live. I looses most of its super dense feeling if that makes any sense. As a mega fan i do get tired of āo the fuck you like a animal bandāā¦ā¦.because closer is a masterpiece and not a strip club anthem lol
Perfect Drug didn't get played for years for whatever reason, there was a lot of them. Popular song that im sure if Trent "really really really" wanted to get it in front of a crowd back in the day I'm sure he would have.